“We will do whatever is necessary to support our friend and ally, Belgium, in bringing to justice those who are responsible. And this is yet another reminder that the world must unite.” President Barack Obama
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President Condemns Belgium Terror Attacks
Posted March 22nd, 2016 at 3:18 pm (UTC-4)
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Our Response to the Brussels Bombings Requires Patience and Restraint
Posted March 22nd, 2016 at 1:47 pm (UTC-4)
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Merely killing passers-by serves no warlike purpose in itself. The explosive force derives from our reaction to it, from the public attention awarded to it and from the response of the political community. Publicity and response are the terrorists’ “useful idiocies”.
Confronting ISIS After Obama
Posted January 21st, 2016 at 3:58 pm (UTC-4)
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The idea of sending a large American military force to push Islamic State (ISIS) militants out of its de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria and parts of Iraq has been firmly rejected President Barack Obama, whose ISIS strategy was dissected immediately after the mass shooting by ISIS sympathizers in San Bernardino, California.
But it’s a hot topic on the presidential campaign trail, with prescriptions like Texas Senator and Republican hopeful Ted Cruz’s idea of “carpet bombing” the group in both countries. Critics, among them former Secretary of State Robert Gates, have publicly shunned such policy statements as simplistic and even irresponsible. GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has said he “would bomb the hell out of those oil fields,” referring to ISIS controlled parts of Iraq.
On the Democratic side, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sounded more hawkish than Obama, her former boss. Her closest rival, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, has been dismissed as thin on foreign policy for saying Muslim nations in the region must do the dirty work.
Experts widely agree that whomever wins the White House in November will not be able to avoid the ISIS problem. Right now, there is no way to accurately predict who that person will be. What we do know is that selling an answer to ISIS while campaigning and actually having to act on it as Commander in Chief are two very different things.
Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing, and Why It Can’t Be Easily Fixed
Posted January 15th, 2016 at 11:57 am (UTC-4)
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Responsible counterterrorism policy, therefore, must not merely disrupt terror cells, impede their planning, and thwart their ability to attract new recruits; it must also tackle the fear that terrorists seek to induce.
2015 in Review
Posted December 30th, 2015 at 2:12 pm (UTC-4)
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As 2015’s final minutes tick away, it’s gives us a chance to look into the mirror to see what we are leaving behind. Many philosophers have noted that history tends to repeat itself. Terrorism. Gun violence. Racial tensions. Religious differences. Politics. The environment. So we reflect on the events and trends of 2015 in hopes of identifying patterns, learning from the mistakes of the past and building on its successes to take on many of the same challenges in 2016.
ISIS Loses Ground With Recapture of Ramadi
Posted December 29th, 2015 at 11:44 am (UTC-4)
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It was hard not to feel good about news that Iraqi forces backed by U.S. military retook Ramadi, a key Iraqi city, from Islamic State militants despite the cautious words from top Obama administration officials. “While Ramadi is not yet fully secure and additional parts of the city still must be retaken, Iraq’s national flag now flies above the provincial government center and enemy forces have suffered a major defeat,” said Secretary of State John Kerry in a statement. The mission to defeat ISIS remains long and unpredictable. But after a year of seemingly endless bad news about the war on terror – not the least of which was the brutal and deadly mass shooting of civilians at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California by a radicalized Muslim couple – it feels good to hold onto this moment of hope.
GOP Candidates Gang Up on Trump as Terror Threat Dominates 5th Debate
Posted December 16th, 2015 at 2:08 pm (UTC-4)
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Some political pundits say last night’s fifth Republican presidential debate revealed two things: Donald Trump’s polling dominance may be waning, and the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino forced the candidates to engage in a substantive discussion about US foreign policy and national security. Republican Senator Ted Cruz trended upward along with former Governor Jeb Bush, who many agreed gave his best performance yet. Other observers noted that Trump appeared to pull back from the spotlight as others united to attack his controversial proposal to ban all Muslims from the entering the United States. Still others clalim Trump won the debate nonetheless; others say it was a draw. Either way, the race to win the nomination of the party is moving into a new and more serious phase as the Iowa caucus beckons.
The Patience of Jihad
Posted December 15th, 2015 at 11:51 am (UTC-4)
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President Obama has argued there isn’t a threat of terrorism from the U.S. refugee program because for individuals who apply it takes two years, “heavy vetting” and is a relatively long process. It doesn’t matter. Jihad is patient, and as ISIS has pledged, it will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
Calls Grow Louder for New US Terror Strategy
Posted December 11th, 2015 at 1:28 pm (UTC-4)
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Until 2011, this was the face of international terrorism, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. That year, President Barack Obama gave the go-ahead for a top secret mission to take out bin Laden, who had been found living in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The mission succeeded and for a long time much of the world relaxed, knowing the man who was behind September 11th was gone forever. Just three years later, the Islamic State took al-Qaida’s slot as the most dangerous terrorist organization, emerging out of the wreckage of Iraq with its signature brutality of beheading hostages and taking huge swathes of territory. A president once admired for acting boldly against al-Qaida is now under withering criticism for not doing enough to stop this latest incarnation of radical Islam. With the shooting deaths of 14 Americans at a workplace holiday gathering in California by a radicalized Muslim-American couple last week, a new poll shows Americans are now just as nervous as they were right after September 11th.
Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States
Posted December 11th, 2015 at 8:26 am (UTC-4)
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I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.
How Terrorists Convince Themselves to Kill
Posted December 10th, 2015 at 6:03 pm (UTC-4)
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The less we empathize with someone, the easier it is to kill them. Jihadist culture is exceptionally good at decreasing empathy for outsiders, Muslim and non-Muslim alike…
Tackling the Threat of Islamic Extremism
Posted December 10th, 2015 at 3:08 pm (UTC-4)
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There has been a steady drip, drip, drip of criticism aimed at President Barack Obama’s strategy against terrorism, and the threat posed here in the United States. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump dominated the debate with his controversial call to bar Muslims from entering America in the wake of the deadly mass shooting by a Muslim couple in San Bernardino, California. Obama’s Oval Office address was examined and torn apart by his fiercest opponents for lacking anything new in the fight against the Islamic State, and for failing to comfort the nerves of ordinary Americans. From the president’s standpoint, those calling for a tougher response by pressing for a new military effort against jihadists are ignoring history – at America’s own peril.